


The Doom of Choice

by Elelome (amyfortuna)



Category: Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-03-04
Updated: 2002-03-04
Packaged: 2017-10-29 21:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/324439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyfortuna/pseuds/Elelome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arwen explains why she chose Aragorn, of all people, to love and to spend eternity with, forsaking the immortal life of her people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Doom of Choice

I choose thee.

It is not for lack of beauty in my life that my eyes behold you with joy. It is not for lack of adventure that I seek you out. It is not the love of the unknown or the longing of a child that drives me to you.

It is you yourself.

You are not the first to pay court to me, to desire me. You are not the first I thought I desired.

Some would say you are my fate, and it was obvious from the moment you laid eyes on me in the woods of Rivendell. Yet I know better. I could have rejected you. I could have lived my life on, until Arda itself should fade, without you.

But I do not desire to do so. Life without you seems strangely dim to me, and even Valinor holds no beauty for me, if you are not there to share it.

I am but simple Arwen of the Elves, no spell-weaver like Luthien, no warrior maid grown wise through tears like my mother's mother Galadriel, no starlit bird like my foremother Elwing. I am the latest of all the Elves born in Middle-earth to the people of the Noldor, and my life has been spent in quiet thought and simple deed, until first you looked into my eyes.

I did not love you at first sight, though I perceived by the look in your eyes and the manner of your dress that you were no ordinary Man, and I gave you the courtesy of my laughter, instead of fleeing like a hart from the bow, as I surely would have done had I seen danger in your glance.

I recalled your eyes many times in years afterward, the light of love and hope in them, the joy, the gentleness, the steadfast beauty that made you seem as one of the Elder people indeed and no kin of the sons of Men.

And though I saw you but little in all the years that passed then, I grew to love you. I loved the thought of you. I treasured your words in my mind. I pondered you by night, when I sat silent under the stars or in the Hall of Fire.

So it was that one day, laughing in Lorien with my maidens, my doom fell upon me, for there I saw you, white-clad, looking to my eyes like Valinor's embassy to me, and there my choice was made.

There my choice was made. Joy leaped up in me and the sight of you made my heart ache in my breast.

I chose thee then, and I choose thee now. My fate? Perhaps. My choice? Always.


End file.
